Bids and New Business Manager - Manchester, United Kingdom - Shoosmiths

Shoosmiths

Verified Company

Manchester, United Kingdom

2 weeks ago

Posted by:

Tom O´Connor

beBee Recruiter

Description

The firm A leading UK law firm with a network of offices from the South Coast to Scotland, working together as one national team.

An innovative practice and the first top 50 law firm to achieve "Platinum Standard" Investors in People, our values and culture are notjust words on our website but are the heartbeat of the firm.

The lack of barriers between departments, a real lack of hierarchy, zero tolerance for arrogance makes Shoosmiths a fantastic place to work.

The role You will support a range of new business opportunities, covering credentials documents to Bids, working with the Bid and Client Partners leading the opportunity, other Partners and key stakeholders and colleagues in the Bid and New Business team.

Your ideasand creative flair will help set our approach apart from other law firms, drawing on intelligence about the client and key knowledge about the firm and the clients we work with.

You will report into the Head of Bids and International and will work closelywith the wider Client Excellence team.

Main responsibilities

Jointly with relevant senior Partners, evaluate the commercial viability of formal Bid opportunities and make justified recommendations whether to pursue or not in relation to return on investment. We have a "Bidding to Win" process which means the keystakeholders are involved in these evaluation opportunities to ensure we have senior support and input for these decisions.
Advise Partners on the recommended route to responding to tenders or sales opportunities.
Manage sales opportunities as appropriate, e.g. creating credentials documents, giving coaching conversations, coordinating client research
Where a Bid is BD supported, offer a full project management support to Bid Partners including scoping meetings with the client, working closely with the client service team to develop a winning proposition, reviewing research and client intelligence tohelp shape ideas tailored to the clients' business/goals, assuming a lead role on drafting BD questions, taking responsibility for portal upload and submission and managing internal and external deadlines.
On existing client retenders, manage the bid process working closely with the client relationship manager, to ensure the bid reflects the latest specific information of relevance to that client.
Construct creative win strategies in conjunction with the Bid Partner and wider BD, to convince a client to use Shoosmiths, including new approaches and innovations. Always using examples from clients to evidence the work we do and to bring the bid to life.
Draft bespoke convincing copy to a very high standard, rather than 'copy and paste'.
Conduct debriefs on Bids that are successful and unsuccessful and translate 'lessons learned' into practical guidance for the wider partnership to grow the Bid win rate. These learnings are shared with the firms' Client Forum (made up of the CEO, Chairman,Divisional Heads, Directors and key members of BD).
Working with client Excellence team colleagues, provide support and coaching to Partners on successful Bids ensuring the right approach is taken to onboarding following a bid win and that the Bid proposition and promises are delivered post Bid.
Work with others in BD to coach Partners to help promote the clientcentric focus for growth.
Work with BD colleagues to ensure case studies are grouped and banked.
Identify target relationships that can be tracked to lead to a bidding opportunity.
Conduct nonlawyer client listening with the firm's clients and contacts to deepen commercial insights into what clients want, and their unmet needs. This may include ad hoc client listening or more specific buying group listening projects.
Take initiative to develop new and innovative tools to improve and evolve the Shoosmiths client experience.
Maintain Bid Record with qualitative and quantitative data.
Proactively suggest and obtain new information as precedent material.
Organise and chair presentation runthroughs, providing critical challenge to the presentation team.
Assist with project work as required.
Attend selected external seminars relevant to this role and report back to the wider team with findings.

Skills and qualifications

Relevant degree or CIM qualification preferred.
A track record of success in managing and delivering effective and winning sales opportunities / Bids within a professional services environment.
Some CRM experience would be ideal to demonstrate wider understanding of the client development approach.
Commercial nous and an ability to see things from the client's point of view.
High level of written communication specifically with experience of producing credentials / Bids.
Collaborative worker, keen to work with others in the team and to take a collective approach.
Selfstarter who creates confidence amongst colleagues and builds cooperative and inclusive working arrangements

Tenacity and patience to move relationships forward over a longer time scale.
Personal credibility and confidence to be able to convince partners of the best course of action.
An excellent communicator who is able to lead and direct team meetings and influence others.
The ability to deliver on promises, meet deadlines, prioritise workloads and manage multiple projects.
Excellent IT knowledge and comfort using Teams, Microsoft Word and PowerPoint in particular.